Northwestern alumni Paul Barrosse (Communication ’80) and Vic Zielinski (Weinberg ’78, Communication M.A. ’79, Pritzker ’83) craved a return to comedy after decades of working in Los Angeles.

“We got to a point in our life where we looked at each other across the table when we were in our early 50s and said: ‘Are we comedians, or what happened?’” Zielinski said. 

The married couple wrote the comedy revue “The Vic & Paul Show” in 2010, marking the revival of The Practical Theatre Company after a near 22-year hiatus. 

The Practical Theatre Company, a nonprofit founded at NU, celebrated its 44th anniversary Saturday, with performances from company members, including former music director Steve Rashid (Bienen M.M. ’83) and the band, the Studio5 All-Stars. From June 8 through July 2, “The Summer Vic & Paul & Dana Revue” will take stage at Studio5 in Evanston and combine classic company sketches, songs and improv comedy.

“Some of (the sketches are) evergreen and as old as 10 years old,” Zielinski said. “Each of those has been modified to have a resilience that gives it new life as we respond to things that are happening outside.”

At “Practical Radio Theatre on the Air,” which ran April 8 and 9 at Studio5, the trio took on a radio show format to deliver bits ranging from political commentary and slapstick to finger tap dancing. 

Original music director Larry Schanker (Bienen ’81, ’88) will return for some events. 

“It’s kind of Nichols and May comedy sketch, but it originates in improv,” Zielinski said. “The design of the show is just as flexible because we can be topical and respond to something that happened.” 

The company’s shows take place on Studio5’s large stage to an intimate audience at cabaret tables and theater seats. Studio5, initiated by co-artistic directors Rashid and his wife Béa (Communication ’78), is an extension of Dance Center Evanston.

The Practical Theatre Company, originally named Attack Theatre at NU, was established in 1979 from the minds of Barrosse, his roommate Brad Hall (Communication ’80), Robert Mendel (Communication ’80) and Angela Murphy (Communication ’82). 

The group found early success at the John Lennon Auditorium and Piper’s Alley Theatre behind The Second City, all before “Saturday Night Live” signed the four stars of “The Golden 50th Anniversary Jubilee” in 1982. 

Barrosse, one of the four plucked for “SNL,” worked as a writer for a year. Despite his disappointment with not being on camera as much as he expected, Barrosse said he “would not trade the experience for the world” and had 22 of his sketches air during the show’s 1982-83 season.

But members of the company dispersed over time. Barrosse and Zielinski moved west to start their family and careers as television producers. Physical separation caused Practical Theatre Company to go dormant after “Rock Me!” in 1988 until “The Vic & Paul Show” was created in 2010.

About the same time as the company’s revival, Barrosse and Zielinski began to host holiday shows in Evanston, which they continued to do with other company collaborators every Christmas and New Year’s until the COVID-19 pandemic. Zielinski said they wanted to come back to Evanston for the community and the “smart theatre” — so they went east.  

“You just feel the crackle of it in a way that you don’t feel in other venues,” Zielinski said. “Folks know how to laugh, and they support and appreciate their comedy.”

The addition of Studio5 as an intimate performance venue in Evanston provided an opportunity for Barrosse, Zielinski and longtime collaborator Dana Olsen (Communication ’80) to continue performing their annual holiday show and begin work on “Vic & Paul & Dana’s Post-Pandemic Revue.”

After five of the company’s six most recent holiday shows sold out, Barrosse wanted to extend the show’s run. So Rashid, a longtime friend and music director for “The Vic & Paul Show,” offered the trio a residency at Studio5. 

“These spring shows may do great. They might bring in just a handful of people. It sort of doesn’t matter to me, and I don’t think it matters to them,” Rashid said. “It’s more like, ‘Let’s just keep doing stuff and have fun with it,’ and then we’ll do full-on productions a couple times a year.”

The residency entails sketch, stand-up and silent comedy offerings along with film screenings and even some Shakespeare-related events. 

Barrosse, Olsen and Zielinski continue managing the company as a brand because of its history and reputation in Chicago. The group is working to rekindle its fan base since there are some supporters who still remember those “haydays” in the ‘80s, Olsen said. Though the names, faces and sketches have evolved over the years, Practical Theatre Company has plans to stick around. 

“We definitely want to keep it going and utilize the space as much as we can and have as much fun there as we can,” Olsen said. 

The lessons the trio learned through the relationships they established at NU were as important as anything they learned in the classroom, Zielinski added.

“These are relationships that are born in play, because we improvise together and there’s a kind of love and respect and tenderness that has evolved over the years and, you know, is it Northwestern? Maybe,” Zielinski said. 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @lexipgoldstein

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